Election 2022 live updates: Albanese says Covid royal commission ‘very important’ as nation records at least 16 deaths

Q: Mr Albanese, why has Labor committed to ending live sheep exports and will you put a timeline as to when that end will take place?

Anthony Albanese:

No, we won’t and our policies have changed. The amount of live exports has halved in recent times and we will continue the summer ban, but we will consult with state governments, in particular the West Australian state government, but we will also consult with the agricultural sector about the issues around live sheep export. Anthony Albanese helps volunteers packing food hamper boxes as he visits the Addison Road community centre in Marrickville. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated at 20.26 EDT

Q: I have a two-part question.

Anthony Albanese:

You can have one.

Q: Right. The pace of your campaign is starkly different than Scott Morrison’s. He is racing between different electorates. It is a slower pace for you. I want to ask how are you feeling post-Covid? Are you still going to rest into polling day? But also on the other question, the teal independents, Monique Ryan changes on border policies, that you need to end offshore detention, will you horse trade on border protection?

Albanese:

No, we won’t. In terms of my health. Look, it is still – I think you have had Covid. It has an impact, doesn’t it.

Q: I haven’t needed to have a nap in the afternoon. You are running for prime minister. Are you match fit?

Albanese:

Well, yesterday I got up in the morning and did breakfast TV, I did radio into Victoria. I went into a smart energy expo in at the convention centre, I talked to providers there. I then did a press conference. I then did – went down and had a meeting with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

I then went up to the CPO, the commonwealth parliamentary offices and had more meetings. I then went and spoke at a lunch at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and gave a considered, extensive economic speech about a better future and about productivity. I then went into my electorate office in Marrickville and then I did Q+A last night. I think that’s a pretty good …

Crowd: Woo-hoo!

Q: But any marginal seats though?

Albanese:

I think that’s a pretty heavy program. Well, the prime minister is trying to put out there that seats like McEwen are marginal seats. The truth is that Rob Mitchell will win a considerable margin in McEwen, and today I am doing this event and then doing some other work that needs to be done and them I will be in Parramatta later on. I look forward to seeing you in Parramatta.

Updated at 20.24 EDT

Q: On cost of living again, I asked you about this a couple of weeks ago, this is about the jobseeker rate. Those who are the unemployed. Why won’t you commit to raising the jobseeker rate if you become prime minister?

Anthony Albanese:

I gave this answer the other day and it is the same answer today … That’s right. That’s what Labor governments do.

[Reporters interrupt]

Albanese:

Order. When we had our last term in government, we had the largest-ever increase in pensions in Australian history, the largest-ever increase in pensions – hello. What is your name?

[A child interrupts the press conference]

Child:

Sammy.

Albanese:

Hello. How are you going? Where is your mum or dad? That’s your mummy. Hi, Mummy! Thanks very much for that contribution.

[A woman waves and quickly pulls her child towards her. The press conference continues]

Updated at 20.22 EDT

Q: Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that a hung parliament wouldn’t necessarily cause the instability that both parties are warning of. You ruled out making a deal with the so-called teal independents. Are you honestly saying that in the event of a hung parliament you wouldn’t negotiate with them? How realistic is that?

Anthony Albanese:

I do note Malcolm Turnbull’s article or speech that he is giving this morning, and I also heard him on ABC Radio this morning.

He spoke about the fact that so many people who are traditional Liberals feel the modern Liberal party under Scott Morrison doesn’t represent them, and they are walking away from the Liberal party.

The Liberal party are divided. They are a rabble. They are led by a man who a whole lot of his own frontbench don’t want him anywhere near their seat and don’t want to appear with him in public. That stands in stark contrast to Labor. Labor which is united, Labor which is ready to form a united, cohesive government, Labor that has a clear plan for a better future. The Liberals are a mess – that is the truth of the matter.

Updated at 20.21 EDT

Q: On Q+A last night you said you would put downward pressure on inflation through targeted spending but all of the signature policies you’ve mentioned take time to implement. What will you do to curtail rampant inflation by the end of the year?

Anthony Albanese:

We have a plan to make sure that all of our expenditures, the – expenditures, the ones that will grow the economy. That is why in particular we have singled out child care as the No 1 priority.

That is in consultation with what the business community is saying, that it will grow workforce participation, grow productivity, produce a return as well. So we are prioritising those investments, but we have also said, in terms of expenditure and putting downward pressure on, that we will have a review of government expenditure by Treasury and Finance.

We will go through line by line, where we can make a difference, and we will do that …

Q: But will that take time?

Albanese:

No, we will do that by the end of year, which is what we have committed to.

Updated at 20.20 EDT

Q: These organisations are run largely by kind-hearted community members, philanthropists and others – a whole collection of funding – and politicians love to come here and be photographed but they don’t leave any money behind. This place gets zero dollars in recurrent funding from any level of government to operate. Would you commit to funding organisations like this in some recurrent fashion so they continue to do this work?

Anthony Albanese:

Well, it certainly has merit, and one of the things that this community centre has benefited from is some of the community grants that have come through my electorate here.

This is the site of where the whalers trained during world war one before they left for the war. It is an old defence site and indeed a great legacy of the Whitlam government was to purchase this. This was up for development and it was purchased for community use. It has been run through many organisations – there is a whole range [of organisations] – there is a Greek theatre across the road there. It provides an incredible community service. I think it is an example, when we speak about where grants go from government, there is a real case for going to organisations like this, who are deserving – it is not about a colour-coded map in a minister’s office. These people do incredible work and they are worthy of support.

Updated at 20.19 EDT

Anthony Albanese is on familiar ground in his electorate of Grayndler, and is in front of the Addison Road community centre:

They help 8,000 people every week. One of the things I have noticed over the years that has really changed is it used to be people who are homeless, people who are unemployed. Now they are helping out the working poor as well.

Mums and dads who can’t afford to feed their kids, who can’t afford to get by with the cost of living. People in this community from outside will say the inner west is gentrified. Yes, it is. People are moving in here who are professional but it has more boarding house residents than any electorate in Australia. It also has a whole lot of people who are doing it so tough. Here at Addy Road, together with the other organisations who are here, like Youth off the Streets and Ethnic Community child care. They help people out every day.

The prime minister seems to think people have got it easy right now. He is out of touch with how tough people are doing it right now.

What we need isn’t just cost-of-living relief during an election campaign that disappears once people have cast their vote. What we actually need is strategies and plans to make sure that no one is left behind.

Something I have spoken about consistently during this election campaign. No one left behind and no one held back. That is Labor’s approach. That is where we will go.

Updated at 20.18 EDT

Peter Hannam

It’s four weeks since we wrote here about the key numbers voters and politicians should know about during the election campaign.

As far as we know the leaders, including Scott Morrison, have not been asked about, say, how many mass bleachings there have been on the Great Barrier Reef in the past six years (or any time, for that matter). That’s even when they’ve visited Cairns and other reef-peeping hotspots.

Anyway, some of the numbers are changing, including the last on the list, which asked what the global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were. Unfortunately, we have to update that figure to a new record.

There are two leaders’ debates to go, anyone want to place a bet on a CO2 emissions question being asked?

Our colleague Adam Morton notes here that as for the party policies, the Coalition’s are aligned to a world that’s 3C warmer than pre-industrial times.

Globally, we’re about 1C warmer and, with the lagging effects of the greenhouse gas emissions we’ve already released, more warming is already locked in. Land warms faster than the average, so Australia’s 1.44C warming since 1900 is just a taste of things to come.

Updated at 20.16 EDT

With two weeks to go, which seats will decide the election?

Sarah Martin has taken a look at the nation:

Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese are preparing for the final sprint to the 21 May election finish line when Australia will decide who forms government.

Labor can sniff victory, but the Liberals are not giving up, hoping the final fortnight may yet see the undecided voters stick with the devil they know.

While national polls show Labor clearly ahead of the Coalition and in line for a comfortable victory, both sides suggest the contest could still be close, with the low primary vote of each of the major parties making the result difficult to pick.

It got even harder:

Q: And then imagine a scenario where, you know, the Greens are the co-pilot. I mean, yesterday yesterday we saw the footage of Lidia Thorpe screaming at police officers, about 12 people who were in a special type of immigration detention because that either broken the law or that accused of breaking the law from things as serious as sexual assault to anything that takes you to be in jail for 12 months. She’s top of the ticket in Victoria and their No 1 preference. What does it say about who’s coming with this mob if they win?

Scott Morrison:

It’s an absolute carnival of chaos. And then you throw in other crossbench independents. See, he’s not particularly strong to start with. But then you throw him in in a parliament where he’s dealing with the teal independents, so-called independents. You got the Greens, let alone the unions and the factions in his own government. I don’t know who’s going to be running that show. I can tell you, it takes a lot of strength to be a prime minister, particularly in very difficult times.

Q: You take this bunch of polls, they say this is going to happen. You take this bunch of polls, that’s going to happen. Dennis Shanahan, I think quite deftly points out that no one has ever won from opposition if they’re not the preferred prime minister. You’re the preferred prime minister by some margin right the way around the country. But what do you see that those polls don’t tell us when we get them every week?

Morrison:

Australians, they’re they’re sizing us up and they haven’t made their decision yet. And this election’s a little different to many I’ve been involved in. And, you know, we’ve come through a pandemic where people have rightly been focused on their own lives, their own challenges, and that’s been really difficult, and it hasn’t been great, and I understand that. But as you get closer to the election and they know they have to make a decision, then they will make a choice between, I think what is best for the Australian economy and their job and their family, the economy that they will live in, that will determine their choices, how their business runs, the strength of their job, how they save for their retirement, what they’re able to earn. And a Labor opposition that we know does not have the strength to actually make the difficult decisions, whether it be on national security or our economy.

And they’ll make a choice. And they won’t make a choice like it’s you know Married at First Sight or something like that. That’s all that’s all fun and that’s all a lot of fun.

But Australians take the elections very seriously and I think as yet, they’re yet to make up their mind. And I think these last couple of weeks will be very important. And that’s why every single day I will just keep reminding Australians about the important choice they have, because the choice they make, just like three years ago, could you imagine if they’d chosen Bill Shorten? I wouldn’t want three years from now people having lived three years under Anthony Albanese, what with whatever’s coming next.

Must have been a sleepless night after that one.

Updated at 19.45 EDT